Struggling to explore Mars

It seems the next step in mankind’s journey of discovery in the solar system will be Mars. According to Vitaly Lopota, president and general designer at Russia’s Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Mars is the only planet in the solar system that would be suitable for human colonization.

“Over the next 50
years, Mars will be the focus of space research and exploration,” Lopota said
at the recently-held 7th International Aerospace Congress in Moscow. Explaining
why Mars is the only other planet in the solar system that could support
mankind, Lopota pointed out that Venus would be fundamentally unsuitable, since
its surface temperature hovers around 500ºC (932°F) and its air pressure is
twice that of the atmospheric pressure on Earth.

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“The only other
option is Mars. This planet could be a relatively comfortable place to live —
air pressure is just a hundredth of what it is on Earth. When looking into the
task of space colonization, Mars is a good place to start. Moreover, Mars is
the only planet with enough water to support humans,” said Lopota.

Russian scientists
have already developed selection criteria for recruiting a team to fly to Mars.
When choosing the right people for a prolonged, piloted mission, the two
foremost criteria are good genes and strong physical and psychological
attributes, says Anatoly Potapov, a researcher for the Institute of Biomedical
Problems at the Russian Academy of Science.

“In choosing a
team for a Mars mission, we are mainly looking for genetic attributes and top
results on rigorous physical and psychological tests,” Potapov said. “We now
have every tool at our disposal to help develop a system that will ensure the
biomedical security of the Mars mission. The International Space Station is a
particularly useful resource for preparing future interplanetary expeditions.”

According to the
researcher, specialists are hoping to create a unique medicine module in the
Russian section of the International Space Station (ISS), to draw on the
results of the Mars-500 experiment that took place between June and November of
last year.

“We have 20 years
to prepare structures that will ensure biomedical security for prolonged
orbital and interplanetary flights. We are currently able to carry out research
using unmanned spacecraft and biosatellites; we can conduct insulated
bio-molecular experiments, conduct model experiments in isolation; we can look
into modeling the state of weightlessness, and conduct research in the extreme
conditions of the Arctic, the Antarctic and the desert,” said
Potapov.

Specialists at the
Institute for Biomedical Problems believe the most pressing task for getting interplanetary
expeditions off the ground is to find a way to isolate and render
self-sustaining the life-support system in space. To create such a system that
guarantees the regeneration of vital supplies, scientists need at least 10
years. The main problems facing scientists remain how to ensure a constant
production of oxygen, water, food, and how to eliminate metabolic waste
products.

The Mars-500
experiment did much increase scientists’ understanding of how humans cope with
prolonged periods in space. Nevertheless, scientists managed to recreate some
of the conditions cosmonauts would have to contend with on a real flight.
Victor Baranov, as assistant director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems,
explained that a similar experiment is set to be conducted with chimpanzees:
“They will be subjected to the same radiation levels that are in space, whereas
other issues will be examined using human testers…”

Unfortunately,
solving these matters will not yield conclusive answers regarding the consequences
of spending long periods of time in space. Weightlessness is very dangerous to
the human body, and the Mars-500 was unable to go so far as to model the total
lack of gravity in space. Thus, it remains unclear as to whether or not humans
will physically be able to cope with prolonged periods of exposure to
anti-gravity conditions.

American
scientists believe that people who have spent prolonged periods of time in
space suffer from a loss of bone density. Observations carried out on 13 astronauts, each of whom had spent six months at the ISS,
revealed that their skeletal mass had decreased by an average of 14 percent
since they left Earth.

And of course,
physical symptoms are just part of the problem; prolonged space travel also places
humans under immense psychological strain.

Unimaginable
distances from the Earth; the long monotony and isolation of space travel; the
cramped conditions on board the spacecraft; the strange sensation of
weightlessness; personal tensions within the team; the substantial workload,
both on board the ship and out in open space; the unpredictable nature of the
job; the huge risks involved and a sense that the entire mission rests on your
shoulders - these are all stresses a cosmonaut has to contend with daily, and
they can end up having a serious effect on the psychological condition and
ability to function.

For missions to
Mars, ground control would be able to do little to help in this respect. Up
until now, cosmonauts have had teams of psychologists on hand at mission
control, and support has always been readily available where the signal
conditions were good. However, signals from Earth will take 40 minutes to reach
the “Red Planet,” regardless of the many decisions will have to be made in a
split second on Mars.